


A Practical Demonstration of Stokesey's Vitrification

by AlexSimon



Category: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell & Related Fandoms, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (TV), Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-02
Updated: 2016-02-02
Packaged: 2018-05-17 18:33:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5881249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexSimon/pseuds/AlexSimon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A prequel to "No Good Roads From Here".</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Practical Demonstration of Stokesey's Vitrification

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheDove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDove/gifts).



The reply to his letter had only said to do two things. The first was to buy a mirror, a large standing mirror, and the second was to wait. 

The first was easily done and within days, there was one in the corner of his room. And then John Segundus commenced with the second, which was much harder.  


He had written the letter to Strange at Christmas, which was now over a month past. 

The letter had been easy to write as he had been influenced by a large glass of wine at his dinner and a very lonely Christmas day and the words he had held inside of him for so long were as eager to be free of him as he was to be free of them and they settled happily in their new home on the paper. Segundus had thought that a declaration of love would look frightening once put down in words he could see, but it had not, though the wine had made made his penmanship sloppier. He had written to Strange so frequently in the past that even the sight of his name and a salutation at the top of the letter was a familiar thing. 

He mailed the letter as soon as he was able, before he lost his nerve. That had been harder. It sat on his desk in its envelope while he waited for the holiday to pass and several times he had been tempted to throw the thing in the fire, but in the end he sent it. Strange's reply, when it arrived, told Segundus nothing about what the man thought of having love proclaimed to him via a letter with a few drops of spilled ink wine dotted among the words, flowering up like spring buds. The reply had only said to do the two things, one now finished and one in progress. 

Segundus was in his room one week after he bought the mirror when it happened. Segundus had been in the process of reading an article that Strange had recently published when he noticed that the glass of the mirror he had been told to buy began to change. It was a subtle difference at first and then, after a few seconds, it took on a very soft look and then a liquid one. 

His reflection changed with the mirror; it loosened around the edges and drooped like melting ice and he stood from his desk and walked across the room to the corner where the mirror stood. Segundus' own image dissolved completely until he could no longer see himself at all. He could now see only gray, and what looked like moving fog, and then from within that, a dark dot showed itself and as it got larger and taller, it took the shape of man. Segundus made out the shape of Jonathan Strange looking at him the second before Strange stepped through his mirror and into his room. 

In greeting, John Segundus cursed out of shock and stumbled backward.

"My apologies, Mr Strange," he said when he had collected himself. But Strange smiled at him and put a hand on his arm as though he was still in the process of tripping backward and needed to be caught. 

"I wouldn't have thought you knew such words, Segundus," he said. "Or at least that you did not use them."

Segundus approached the mirror and touched it and then turned back to Strange. 

"Is this a new spell?" he asked. 

"No," said Strange. "In fact, it's very old. May I sit?" 

There was no place with room for them but the bed, so that was where they went. Segundus braced himself for Strange to introduce the topic of the letter he had written, but instead, he began to tell Segundus a story about the King's Roads, which was as Segundus learned, the name of the place Strange had just come from. It was an exciting story, full of evenings playing billiards at London coffee houses and chasing rascals from the homes of women they had swindled money from. 

"I have been talking far too long, Segundus," said Strange when he had finished speaking. "Why didn't you stop me?" 

"It was a very interesting story, Mr Strange." 

"Would you like to see how the process starts?" asked Strange. He motioned to the mirror. "You only saw the ending. You're a scholar. I believe you will appreciate this." 

Strange stood from the bed and went to the mirror and Segundus followed. He put his hands to the glass and said a few soft words and once again, it turned paler and shivered when Strange touched it. 

"See this, Segundus?" Strange stuck his right foot through the mirror and it disappeared into the surface.

Segundus touched the mirror as well and found it as warm as person's body now, with a texture like a soft, new leaf. The mirror trembled under his fingers, which made temporary small dents in its current, more pliant surface

"Go on," said Strange. "Put your hand through." 

Segundus did and jumped back at the sight of it, at his hand sunk into what should have been glass, and at the cold that washed over his skin in the place he had just reached into. When he was startled, he fell into Strange, who caught him and steadied him on his feet again, a movement that was this time necessary. 

"Amazing, isn't it?" 

Strange said the words that turned the mirror back into a mirror and it once again reflected two men standing in a plain bedroom.  


"It is," said Segundus. He stared down at his hand and made a fist with it. His hand could both make a fist and enter fairy kingdoms through the mirror in his room and the thought caused him to blink several times in delight. 

"There is something else I thought you might like to see. One or two more things, actually, if you have time." 

"I have all evening, Mr Strange," said Segundus. 

Strange looked around the room and saw, lying on Segundus' dresser, a button that had recently fallen off his coat. 

"May I?" 

Segundus turned his eyes to the button too. He did not know what Strange could want it for, but he said yes and Strange went to the dresser and took it in his hand. 

"Watch," Strange said. He walked back to the bed and sat down. He placed the button in front of him and Segundus sat on the other side of it.  


This spell was longer. Segundus watched Strange hold his hand over the button for a full of minute of muttered speech. At the last word, there was a pop and the button, once dark, was now made of glass. Segundus was so surprised that reached without thinking into the space next to him and was mortified that what he had done was grab Strange's leg, which sat only inches from him. He pulled away and stared down at the button to keep from having to look at Strange's face. Strange, however, said nothing about it. 

"It's called Stokesey's Vitrification," he said. "Ralph Stokesey wrote it." 

"Thank you, Mr Strange," said Segundus. "I had guessed that by the name." 

Segundus finally looked up at the sound of Strange's laughter. 

"Of course, Segundus. Of course. I have only just learned the spell, though it too is old." 

He noticed that Segundus had moved his hand toward the button but drew it back when he got too close.

"You can touch it," Strange said. 

Segundus picked up the button and held it between his fingers and then set it in the palm of his hand. 

"What other uses does this have?" asked Segundus. 

"That is it. But it also works on people, which I guess could be very dangerous in the wrong hands. But really, whose hands would those be? Mine and Norrell's, that is it." 

Segundus continued to stare at the glass button in his palm.

"Would you like your button back?" asked Strange.

"No," said Segundus, and he put the glass button in his pocket. "I would like to study this, if I may." 

"Now that," said Strange, "is a proper appreciation of magic. All Norrell said when I mastered it was 'be careful Mr Strange' and "please don't shatter that teaspoon'." 

He smiled at Segundus again. 

"Since you're so amenable, there's something else I could show you, if you'd like. I haven't had much practice with this and it's a nice night for it." 

"I would like that," said Segundus. 

He followed Strange to his window. It was a clear night and the moon was large and each star in happy prominence. 

Strange opened the window and the cold January air hit them. He did not need words for whatever he did now and soon, on the horizon, a small pack of clouds appeared and Strange beckoned and they moved closer and closer over the course of several minutes until they covered the moon. 

"Oh, but you're cold," said Strange. He waved at the clouds and they began to drift away as Strange shut the window. 

Segundus wrapped his arms around himself and watched the clouds until they had gone back to wherever they had been before Strange had called them.

When they had gone completely, he turned back to Strange, who he only now noticed had watched him the entire time. 

"I wish I could do all of my magic for you," said Strange. "Or more of it, anyway." 

He reached out and touched Segundus vest and then his fingers moved over to one of the buttons. Segundus stood still as Strange turned each of the buttons on his vest in turn to glass. When he was done, he stepped forward and took the first one in his fingers and slipped it from its place. When he was done, he returned it to its normal form and then worked on the others one by one until each was button was undone. 

He slid Segundus' vest from him and dropped it to the floor. He spent several seconds watching Segundus' chest rise and fall under his shirt. Segundus did not move and Strange leaned in and pressed his lips to Segundus' briefly and then pulled back. 

"This is what you wanted, isn't it Segundus? This is why you wrote?" 

"I'm afraid I never let myself get past the relief at unburdening myself of my feelings."

Strange stepped closer to him. 

"But you're agreeable now that I am here?"

"I am," said Segundus. 

Strange pressed Segundus gently against the wall next to the window and took his face in his hands. He leaned down and kissed him again, a longer kiss that parted both of their lips Strange dropped his hands from Segundus face and reached behind him to pull the curtain closed.


End file.
